Massgrave of Jagannath Hall, Dhaka University
The exact number is still unknown. We will (probably) never know exactly how many martyrs were killed in the aftermath of the massacre at Jagannath Hall on the night of March 25, 1971. Although we have been emotionally calling it a ‘mass grave’ for 46 years now. But is it a mass grave at all? Or the dumb history of the killing ground of these indescribable martyrs of the most barbaric genocide in human history.
According to the information mentioned on page 18 of the book ‘Dhaka University Massacre: 1971 Jagannath Hall’ edited by Professor Ratanlal Chakraborty of the History Department of Dhaka University; 4 teachers, 34 students and 4 employees of Jagannath Hall were martyred by the Pakistani truculent army that night.
At the same time, he said, apart from these 42 people, teachers, employees of other departments of Dhaka University, saints of Ramna Kalimandir and Shiv Bari and their family members, as well as countless others who were present, were subjected to indiscriminate killings from March 26 to 27. Pakistani hyenas tried to bulldoze their bodies.
Nurul Ullah, a professor at the University of Engineering, recorded the video of the massacre on the night of March 25. He secretly captures the smallest part of the night’s horror at the risk of his life through the windows of his residence. At best he had only one videotape of his camera, so it was not possible to capture too much footage. We will be grateful to him for this footage. If he had not recorded the scene of that genocide, today in 2019 it would have claimed by many ‘inhuman’ in Bangladesh today (despite the evidences) that no murder had taken place that day!
The mass grave was excavated on Thursday, May 11, 1972, at the initiative of the International War Crimes Commission. At that moment silence fell among the martyred relatives and others present in the premises of Jagannath Hall. Along with the human skeleton, their last-minute clothes were coming up every moment. Relatives were speechless looking for the minimum sign that would allow them to recognize their loved one. The remains recovered on that day were re-placed in the present ‘Gana Samadhi’ premises. A memorial plaque was erected by the then Food Minister Phanibhushan Majumdar. Of course, both of these are signs of the most brutal genocide at Jagannath Hall.
66 of the martyrs have been identified from the brutal killing of Jagannath Hall premises, of March 25. Their names are engraved on the white stone plaque of the mass grave. Out of this, an unknown number of martyrs have remained unrecognized.The complete list of martyrs of 1971 has not been made in the whole Dhaka University even today. The list of universities has 195 names and identities. Most of the eyewitnesses of that day rejected this list, because they knew that the number of martyrs of Dhaka University that night was in the thousands.
We, are the unfortunate citizens who failed to judge the brutal murder of their ancestors, we even failed to know their names.
Translation Credit: Our heartiest gratitude goes to Sreemoyee Mazumder, for her wonderful and kind support.